EVA England, the membership association set up in 2020 to act as a voice for electric vehicle drivers, has called for the government to put a stop to its deployment of the eVED pay per mile scheme until it’s working. 

The government gave out some more details of its implementation of eVED in the so-called ‘red book’ that’s issued after the chancellor’s budget speech and contains much of the bad news and small print the finance chief hasn’t announced. 

The Treasury document acknowledged some of the issues around eVED implementation, but said that a system to issue repayments to people who have overpaid their tax wouldn’t be operational until 2030, even though eVED is being introduced in 2028.

The government had initially been very dismissive of concerns around the prepayment aspect of the pay per mile EV tax – you’ll have to guess your annual mileage and pay in advance – saying that any surplus would be rolled over to the following year or should be accounted for in the sale price. 

EVA England boss Vicky Edmonds ran the government department now known as the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles for three years, so she’s got particular insight into how these policies are put together. 

She’s calling for the scheme to be deferred until it’s fully functional: ”Introducing a new and complex scheme in 2028, that will provide no recourse for drivers worried about overpaying for their mileage until 2030, makes no sense. 

“eVED must work for drivers from day one of its introduction. It must be delayed until that is the case, and until the structural reforms we so badly need to address the charging divide are firmly in place.”